Itinerary Help

If you figure in travel time between the cities, that is about 3 1/2 days in each city. I think you can choose to spend a long time in any city, or spend a short time and get the general feel. Using your barometer as 5 days being too long for Paris, I think 3 1/2 days is a good amount to see the bulk of the touristy stuff and enjoy those cities.

Have you purchased your airfare yet? My guess is that it is easiest to fly into/out of Munich between those cities. I am curious to see everyone's comments on suggested order.

Are you planning on doing trains or driving? My family went to Krakow and we hired a driver to drive us to Prague. My older parents were not excited about the idea of a night train and flights were too expensive. There were 4 of us and we went through "Prague airport Transfers". They actually drove to Krakow to pick us up! And split between the four of us, the price was comparable to train tickets and it was way faster. Just thought I would mention it as a quicker option!

Have fun! Krakow is one of my favorite cities!

Thanks! We're doing it by train and like the idea of the overnight trains. We haven't been on too many trains, but we both kept falling asleep on the train from Brussels to London, so I think we'll be ok!

Hubby wants to try and do Vienna (without Bratislava) and Munich. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth stretching our time to fit both in.

Is Krakow worth 3 full days (1 being a tour of Auschwitz) or would an extra day someplace else be better? So many decisions! He also wants to rent a car in Munich to go see some of the smaller villages near the Austrian border (and ride some cable car/ski lift thing that looks scary).

Any help is appreciated, this is our first trip to Central Europe!

Krakow is definitely worth three days or more. Auschwitz-Birkenau will take a good part of one day. There is a lot to see and do in Krakow, I used the RS snapshot guidebook. I also loved Warsaw but I see that's not on your list.

Jennifer:

You are going to four great cities, each of which are worthy of 4 days minimum, not including travel to the next town.

With 15 travel days, you should consider dropping one of your cities, and fly open jaw. I'm saying you could do Krakow, Prague and Vienna with a day trip to Bratislava. Or, Prague, Vienna/Bratislava and Budapest. Either way you go, the trains are frequent between these cities and are the way to go.

It would be nice to see Cesky Krumlov, but it's just not possible to see every place with your limited time.

We're going into Budapest (4 nights) the end of March and taking the train to Bratislava (2 nights.) Then we're taking a hydrofoil into Vienna (4 nights) and the train to Prague (4 nights.) We feel that's a good itinerary--not to far and fast.

Good luck to you.

Jennifer,

your stops are where im heading this fall. my the order is a little different for me. Right now i havent decided on how many days in each since im researching on what to do/see, but i think it will be close to 3 full days in each.

as far as weather goes, i will pack just like i normally do. rain isnt an issue and will be like home.

happy trails.

Logistically- to spend as little time as possible traveling I would fly open jaw that is to fly to Budapest and fly back from Munich. From Budapest to Vienna, then Krakow, Prague, Cesky Krumlov. From C.K. you can take shuttle bus (train takes too long) to Linz. From there you can catch direct train to Munich. If you still have time you can stop on the way in Salzburg. If you go from Budapest to Krakow you have to change trains twice: in Breclav and in Katowice and the journey is quite long. From Vienna you change trains only in Katowice and the journey takes less time. You can check schedule of all your trains on Deutsche Bahn website. If you are not too unlucky weather at the end of Sept./beginning of Oct. is usually good. For me this itinerary would be little busy but you say that you are go-go-go type travelers.

Schedule wise if you keep these 4 cities, which are wonderful choices for your travel, it’s doable as you both enjoy the faster pace.
Consider 3 places at 4N and 1 place at 3N, equals your 15 travel days.

Out of your four cities you have 2 side trips which take one day, and possibly a 3rd side trip for Krakow.
The cities with side trips I would give 4N to and the one without a side trip I’d give 3N.

I have researched this same itinerary route and found I’d drop Vienna only because I have been there. I’d return to Munich as my time there was brief and very cold temperatures.
Flights out of MUC were less than ones out of VIE, too.

Side trips: You can train to Cesky Krumlov & cruise back, or vice versa. At Cesky Krumlov you can hike, bike, & kayak at that time of year.

Happy travels!

My favorite time of the year in the region is late September to early October so you did well on that account in my opinion.

Everyone’s tastes and interests are different. Here is an idea that might work for you. I don’t think it is too rushed, but it’s a little more than I would try at this point in my life. I have traveled a lot in the region and I have never been to Krakow so I cant comment from personal experience. Most of those I know that have been there have thought two full days was a good stay. One for the camp and one for the town. Im just not emotionally ready for the camp, may never be, so may never make it to Krakow. Skip Krakow and go directly to Vienna and you can distribute the time saved between Prague, Vienna and Budapest.

Here is the route I describe below http://goo.gl/maps/N8doU
1. Depart the US
2. Arrive Prague (good choice of where to start the trip as Prague is the most intense of the stops)
3. See Prague. Make sure you spend some time in the Jewish quarter as it gives some good perspective on the rest of your trip.
4. More Prague
5. Yet more Prague
6. Prague to Cesky Krumlov by private van (CZK or Bean: $40 to $150 a seat depending on the options). I would pay extra and arrange a stop at Karlstejn Castle on the way down. If possible get a room with a view of the castle at the Hotel Dvorak http://hoteldvorak.com/en/
7. Cesky Krumlov to Vienna by shuttle (CZK or Bean $50 a seat and 3 hours ). Late afternoon.
8. See Vienna
9. See Vienna
10. Vienna to Krakow by night train. Finally the train you wanted.
11. Krakow
12. Krakow
13. Krakow to Budapest by bus. Orangeways does have some “night busses”. Fares are about $30 a seat. 7 hour trip.

14. Budapest
15. Budapest
16. Budapest
17. Return to the US

Feel free to write if I can help.

Also go to the various new Country forums for specifics on each.

Re: Krakow- If you plan on going to the salt mines and Auschwitz and touring the city, I would do three days. If you only want to do two of those things, you could probably get away with two FULL days, three nights. Also, I think your furthest train rides are going to be to Krakow and back, no matter what order you do everything in. So you may want the three day break between the long train rides.

Apparently Kristen knows Krakow. If you add a day to Krakow then I would pull the day from Prague.